eldeguello,I have noticed that you also are interested in muzzle loader ballistics. We at the Saukinalks club did some interesting experaments back in the 70's. To make a long story short we found out that a round ball traveling over 1800 fps flattens out as it penatrates till it looks almost like a coin and then the edges are push or reformed back behind the center so it cuts a hole more like a round ball again. If you set up ballistic jell with card board partitions every 2 inchs then pull the partitions and keep them in order you can see all the shapes it goes through and why they are so effective. Lee

This is a roundball recovered on the far side of the spine of a second deer. The ball first passed throughthe firstlarge deer's heart and lungs. It travelled about 10 feet striking a second deer (unseen) standing behind the first. The ball then entered the second deer, broke the spine, and was found lodged under the skin against the broken section of spine in the second deer.

I had plenty of tags to legally cover the MISTAKE I made,but it just goes to show you the power a roundball can have. The first deer was about 75-80 yards out. I was shooting a T/C Renegade with 90 grains of Pyrodex RS as I remember with a moose milk patch and a home cast ball.

That is really cool and shows that roundballs are really deadly.

Thanks for the info, lemoyne. I agree that the RB tends to become coin-shaped as it goes through. Of course, TOO MUCH flattening lowers sectional density immensely and thus, limits penetration. However, most balls will retain enough penetrating power to go through a deer on a broadside shot, even a big mulie. Thus far, the only RB's I've recovered were from a target backstop, and they were real flat! Never have recovered one from a deer-they went through. Maybe if I shot an elk with one, or a big bear, I could find the ball.......

When I first started shooting my own BP rifles, I was tutored by an old gentleman in Indianapolis, IN who thought my quest for a better projectile than a round ball was "frivolous", to say the least. Now that I am about the same age he was back then, I must say I am getting more certain that he was right all along.....